March Meeting

This month's meeting was held at Deseria's house. The dolls we loaned out for the Black History Month Exhibit mentioned in last month's post were given to Deseria. It was decided since we would have to pickup our dolls, we should have the meeting there also. Along with the return of our dolls there was also a letter thanking each of us for participating and helping with the success of the exhibit. It was stated the exhibit attracted far more visitors than any other displays at the Rockland Community College Library.

Our meeting this month had to do with fabric manipulation. Deborah distributed different ribbons and trims to demonstrate how they can be used in our doll making. She demonstrated how by combining 2 or more ribbons and/or trim you can make an entirely new "fabric" to use for your doll costuming. We also discussed different dollmakers and their techniques along with what classes we would like to take. We all agreed the best costuming techniques are done by the dutch dollmaker Ankie Daanan. Deborah will demonstrate at a future meeting how to use Ankie's patterns. Deborah has taken her class named the Dutch Touch which I later found out is being given in November of this year in RyeBrook New York. Deborah highly recommends the class. Here's a link to the website with info for the class http://www.ankie-doll-art.com/

February's Meeting

As mentioned in January's post our club was asked to participate in a Black History Month activity at Rockland Community College. We were asked to display some of our dolls. We took care of the preliminarys in last month meeting so we decided we would go to the exhibit for our February meeting. This was also an opportunity to achieve one of the goals set at our last meeting which was to do an outing. It was held at the library and although it was not a very large exhibit, the setup was kind of intimate. It had a very cozy setting. The photo is of the dolls done by our group. They also had posters up telling the story of dolls and how they relate to Black History. It was nice to see our dolls on display especially in the cozy setting. Melissa did a very nice job with the whole exhibit. She also posted credits for each of the dollmakers who participated. Once we left the exhibit, we headed over to the Palisades Mall to have dinner. We ended up at the Cheese Cake Factory and had a great time having our meal and talking about old black and white movies we've seen. Since we did the outing in this meeting I believe we will be doing fabric manipulation for the next one.

First Meeting 2008

It's a new year and the club has had it's first meeting. It was a 2 part meeting starting with discussing things we would like to do for the year. We talked about the possibility of hosting a teacher for a sculpting class. It was also suggested we learn to make our own molds for masks. Costuming was another suggestion as well as fabric manipulation. We didn't get to do these two things last year, so we want to make sure we did them this time around. It was also suggested we do armature wrapping and something with a pre-made wire bust and decorative paper. Charity dolls also came up. It was suggested we do something with and/or for a group of children for charity. Last but not least, we want to schedule an outing or two this year. Maybe a shopping day or something along those lines. Deborah came up with a great idea also. She suggested all the things we learn this year be part of one project which will be completed at the end of the year. We decided to start with fabric manipulation. We are to bring our ugly fabrics and any other fabrics we would want to manipulate or have manipulated already. Jean will look into ordering the paint sticks needed for dying fabric. That concluded the first part of our meeting.

The meeting was held at Deseria's house in Rockland because we were asked to participate in a doll exhibit. We were asked to bring 5 or 6 dolls each. We met with Melissa L. Roy Esq. who is the Director of the Equity & Compliance Office at SUNY Rockland Community College in Suffrin, New York. She talked to us about the exhibit and how our dolls will be displayed. The exhibit will start on January 21st and run through February for Black History Month. There will be more about the exhibit once it starts. This will be one of the group outings planned for this year

October's Meeting

We had our monthly meeting on Saturday and we worked on our Halloween project. We agreed at our last meeting we would all make a witch. The witches that were not completed were worked on while we chatted about everything that came to mind. The photo to the right is Jean's witch she named Prada. As you can see she is going to be a very fashionable witch, hence the name. She used a pattern designed by Julie McCullough. It's still in the construction stage and we can't wait to see it finished. Sandi chose to use a pattern designed by Patty Culea. She also worked on completing hers along with Vivian while we all chatted. I didn't get a photo of Vivian's doll this time but will have it in the next post when it's completed. I had finished mine and had it up for show & tell. I used a free pattern of a witches head used for a pin doll from Mary Tressler's site. The rest of the doll was my own. I call her my spider witch. Next Sandi suggested a pattern we should try. It's the free pattern offered by Judy Skeel for her challenge. We decided it will be our Christmas Holiday doll. It will be our project for December. Next month's project will be a doll made up with 2 colors picked from a bag. There was some interesting color combinations drawn . The pattern we will use is also a free pattern offered by Rivkah Rosenfeld called Francesca.

They should all turn out great.

September's Meeting

Our September meeting started with show & tell. This month's show & tell had quite a few dolls because we didn't meet last month. Some of us attended the Doll Day function which fell on the same date as our usual meeting. So during that break, we all have been busy making dolls. There's my Charmed Cobra and Ethiopian Queen in the photo on the right. The doll on the bottom left with the brown curly hair was made by Jean and the striped doll is also mine, both made from the Annie LaBouche pattern. At the bottom is Sandi's Etta Mae and friends. In the photo on the left. Sandi's Ethiopian Queen was added. We all had a good laugh listening to Jean's story about how she got Etta Mae fever. She blamed it all on me because I made them also and brought them to show & tell for a previous meeting. I'm glad I was able to get your creative juices flowing Sandi, you did a great job on all of them! At our last meeting I had mentioned some hats I had made a few years ago from an online class. I said I would bring them for them to see. Now I'll have to make dolls to wear these hats. Our project for this meeting was to make the How's My Hair? doll. It was a pattern from the July 2007 issue Soft Dolls & Animals magazine. We thought it would be a fun pattern to work on and it was. Four of us completed the doll and we decided we would submit it to the magazine.

Next on the agenda was my needle sculpting demonstration. I was asked to demonstrate to the members how to do needlesculpting. Sandi and Vivian wanted to learn how it's done to incorporate it in some of their future dolls. It was fun seeing how each face turned out. Nice job ladies! What we've decided to do for our next meeting is make a witch doll. Since it will be ghost and goblin season, why not? It doesn't have to be a typical witch so it will be interesting to see what we come up with. This concludes September's meeting. We had a lot of fun as usual.